I've actually never met Faron in my previous life. Never seen his face and right now, I still couldn't really see his face as his cowl covered his whole face in shadow, even though it was broad daylight.
"This here is Faron, he is this kingdom's top ranked spell-caster and head of the magic association branch here. And this pretty little lady here is Sara, she is a high ranked weapons master and captain of the Silver hawks." Garret patted the shoulder of a armor-clad petite woman who stared intently at me.
"I'm Faron Nadhin, a pleasure," Faron stuck his hand out for a handshake. I reached out to accept the handshake and when I did, my vision faulted.
{Foreign substance has entered your body.}
[Foreign substance is ineffective (Luke's 'Musical Playbook')]
My vision steadied as a small smile crept on to my lips. I could feel Faron's hand go limp in mine so I let go and before my eyes his whole bodily structure crumbled and dissolved into mist like 'dry ice'.
"Eh, what just happened?" exclaimed Hannah. "He just dissolved into thin air!"
"I'm sorry for Faron's behavior, this was the first time I've seen him act this way," stated Sara.
"You don't have to feel sorry for that bastard's behavior. I swear something's not right with that fellow and what happened to MagicCore Honders, he was the one who was supposed to be here." Garret ran a hand through his hair and gave out a deep sigh. "Alright everyone, we will resume this tomorrow morning. Little miss, do you want to stay here or come with me to camp C?"
"It's fine, I'll stay here and have a little chat with...?" she looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Ryan Huang."
"I'll have a little chat with Ryan, thanks Garret."
"Suit yourself. Hey Kid maybe we should have a drink one day, you seem to be an interesting guy." Garret waved as he left and headed to a camp on the far right of where we were. I could see steam coming out of some of the tents and the sounds of 'sizzling' crackled through the air. It must've been the kitchen tents he was headed to. Either there was a pub in one of those tents or he was also a cook. Garret from my previous experiences with him, he would rather drink than eat. He said, he could fight better drunk, than on a full stomach. I hoped he was joking because that's a death sentence.
Sara looked up at me as one of her hand rested onto the butt of her sword's handle. She looked like a badass and I for one acknowledged that fact. I was surprised that with so much going on in her life, she still had a lot of patience... with me. Her willingness to teach me despite the criticism other instructors and teachers gave her spoke volumes to her character.
"So what do you want to talk about?" I asked hesitantly.
"What really happened back there... with you and Faron." Her golden eyes glimmered from the sun's light as her silvery white hair enhanced her eyes ethereal glow.
I knew one fact I've learned from my previous life was that I should never lie to Sara. She wears her heart on her sleeve and if there was anything that pisses her off the most was a liar.
"I don't know what he did but it wasn't anything good. When I shook his hand my vision wavered. I felt an uneasiness inside of me. Luckily, one of my students had recently used one of his skills for a test run and well thanks to his skill, whatever Faron did to me had no effect."
I would never lie to Sara of course but I only gave her the basics of what really happened. I figured the reason why Faron showed up was to either seek information or to take me out right away. From how he showed himself and the ways he acted I could tell he was suspicious of me. Must've been one of those sixth sense type of thing.
"I see. Please be careful of him, if he ever does something to you or your students, never hesitate to let me or Garret know. We both also feel that something is a bit off with him, something that's not right. May you have pleasant dreams. I'll see you tomorrow." She gave me a faint smile before bowing and left towards a set of camps on my left.
As there were a few hours left until dinner, I suggested to my students to head back to their rooms for some down time until dinner. I knew Garret would start his commando like training tomorrow so I wanted my students to have whatever free time they had left before their life changes forever.
I laid on my bed as I stared at the hand that shook Faron's in front of my face. He must've sensed something when we shook, for him to act like that. If I had fainted or died right then, all his schemes would've been ruined. He didn't want to kill me but he wanted to do something but what.
Even though I couldn't see his expression hidden under his cowl, I could tell by the feeling from his hand that whatever he wanted to do didn't pan out. I must remember to thank Luke for saving me later, thanks to him not only was Faron's main mission failed but his other outcomes too.
I needed to figure out what's Faron plotting and whether it was related in anyways to Rex. I knew the king wanted him to erase both Stella's and Rex's existence from our minds but if he had a bigger role in this than that's a problem.
I sighed as I felt the frustration well up inside of me. I would actually welcome the idea of facing down a demon king then to have my students be harmed by the hands that called us. There may not have been a demon king in this world but to me the king was slowly revealing himself to be one.
I shook my head as I heard a knock on my door and then the sound of my door knob wobbling.
Crap, did I forget to lock my door again?
I got out of bed and headed towards the door to see who it was. I was only a few feet away before my door swung open and Stella walked in, she then closed the door behind her and locked it.
Ah I did forget to lock it again... Maybe the problem was that I have no clue on how to use a lock since I still lived with my parents.
"Teach, I was wondering if you got a moment, I want to talk to you about something." Stella stood at the door with a nervous expression. She bit her lip as her eyes flicked from the floor to my own. She crossed her left arm across her stomach and rubbed her right arm.
"Of course. You know you can come and talk to me about anything." I walked over to the side of my bed and sat down then patted the spot next to me for her to come and sit as well. She walked over and sat so close to me that I could feel her warmth radiating off of her.
"It's about my dream I had last night." She moved a bit more closer to me as she spoke.
"Oh, you mean the one you guys told me about this morning?" I looked down at the top of her head as she looked straight forward. I could tell she was holding herself back, from bursting out all the feelings and emotions that seemed to bottled up inside of her.
"There were things in my dreams I've never told anyone even Rain and Lucy. The dream I had last night, it felt so real, the sense of fear, the sense of loneliness and the sense of my world closing in on me. In my dream I was in this room, my hand strapped behind my back and a figure sitting on a chair. I couldn't see him, it was like if he was silhouette in one of those shadow puppet plays. I felt like screaming for help, for someone to come and save me but nothing came out.
I watched as the figure do things I didn't want to see, to hear it say things I didn't want to hear. After a while the figure stood up from the chair and walked towards me. He leaned so close I could smell the odor coming off of him. I tried to move away from him but behind me was a wall and I couldn't escape, he ripped my sleepwear then and I felt my inside grow cold, my fears consuming me as I stared at the devil who smiled at me with a disgusting grin. At that moment I thought about someone... I thought about the one person that made me happy, I wanted him to come and save me and take me to somewhere safe... away from this nightmare.
That was when a knight in shining amour came bursting through the door and demanded the figure to not lay a finger on me. I felt my world opened up again then, the knight wore full amour and helmet so I couldn't see who he was but his voice gave me warmth. The two fought and at one point during the fight I was knocked unconscious for a few seconds. I couldn't move my body and could barely open my eyes, after a while of laying there I felt my body being lifted up and then I felt a warmth surrounded me and then I heard a heartbeat.
I could barely see through my eyes but what I did saw was a shirt, a shirt that looked similar to your undershirt, teach. I couldn't move but at that moment I wanted nothing more but to be wrapped in the warmth of the person's embrace. Your embrace."
Stella paused for a while as she tried to catch her breath. She had indeed wanted to burst out in telling me her story and I was all ears. I felt her pain with every words she spoke. I knew not only because I was there but it was also the same feeling I felt in trying to save her. After she took a few deep breaths she began recalling the rest of her story.
"I was in darkness throughout my dream, I wanted to cry but I couldn't, the fear stopped me but in that moment I heard someone else's cry.
The knight that held me cried, he cried for me. I couldn't cry in my pitiful state but he did it for me. I listened to his cry, desperately wanting to join him but couldn't. The last thing I remembered was my name being called before everything went dark.
When I woke up I was back in my room and when I looked down, my sleepwear was whole. This dream, it felt so real but I woke up in my bed like I had a nightmare. I'm scared, teach."
"Don't be, I will always be here with you." I smiled down warmly to her and she looked back at me with a serious expression.
"Hey teach, if something were to happen to me... like in my dream, would you come and save me?" She asked me a question that stopped my heart for a second. I felt myself wanting to cry but I couldn't let her know it was me... not yet at least.
"Of course, I'm your teacher after all."
"No, I didn't mean as my teacher but as a hero. Would you come save me and be my knight in shining armor."
I felt my whole world narrowing on me. Did she knew it was me? Did she knew it wasn't a dream?
"I uh..."
Stella stared up at me, waiting for my answer. She had asked me a question I knew was a trap and my answer would cement whatever thought she had in her mind.